“My dream is to become an animation editor, singing the animation songs from the mountain to the river.” Zhou Jiawen, a sophomore student at An Hua Number 12 Middle School, is describing herself after ten years confidently on the platform. She had braised pork during the meal after, which adds more motivation of her dream. On December 19, the opening ceremony of Mutian Forum “My Future Self in Ten Years”, which is also the opening ceremony of Free Lunch - “A bowl of meat” project took place in An Hua Number 12 Middle School. 

At the opening ceremony, the propaganda minister of An Hua Li Guoxiang introduced the project, and the president of An Hua Number 12 Middle School Lu Yehui gave his welcome speech. Four students then gave their own speeches of “My Future Self in Ten Years”, Deng Fei, the founder of Free Lunch shared his experience as a high school student. Yang Guangxin from An Hua government gave his speech, and at the end Ma Keji from Guangdong Minsheng Bank gave the certification to the school. 

Mutian Forum is nonprofit organization organized by <The Elites> magazine and Feng Lun, Ding Dang, Fan Yijin, Gao Xijun, Fan Jianchuan, Xie Youshun and Deng Fei. It focuses on teenagers’ mental development and China’s countryside education. Since the October of 2013, it has influenced more than 20 thousands students. 

Deng Fei explained that they got the idea of “Free Lunch - A bowl of meat” from a letter written by a high school student. A high school student in An Hua wrote a letter to Deng Fei after reading Deng Fei’s book. The student told him they have poor nutrition in the countryside, some of the students cannot have meat in more than one month. Deng Fei and Li Tao from Guangdong Minsheng Bank recalled their own memories of being a high school student in the countryside. They were starving and had poor nutrition too, and therefore they want to help those high school students, especially those in the countryside. Thus, Li Tao suggested that Guangdong Minsheng Bank could help one high school in countryside, and support Free Lunch to enter high school field. 

On November 2014, Hua Nan An Hua Number 12 Middle School is chosen for the project after a lot of examination. On December 19, Guangdong Minsheng Bank decided to help An Hua Number 12 Middle School to be the first school that starts “Free Lunch - A bowl of meat” project. Students will have certain amount of meat each week, and all the numbers must be reported and supervised.

Lu Yehui, the president of An Hua Number 12 Middle School said that his school is chosen among the 34480 countryside schools shows that Free Lunch and Guangdong Minsheng Bank care a lot about the countryside schools. He hopes that there will be more people that care about countryside education and countryside students. He hopes in this way China can be changed softly. He also hopes the students can give back to the society after they grow up. 

Yang Guangxin from An Hua government welcomes this kind of event, and she thinks this not only help students’ physical situation, and also their mental development too. She hopes the project will go well, and also hopes these students can give back to the society after they grow up. 

The representative of Guangdong Minsheng Bank said that Minsheng Bank has done a lot with Free Lunch to help the countryside students. “This is only the start, Minsheng Bank will continue to support Free Lunch and charity to help more countryside students. 

The founder of Free Lunch, Deng Fei, says that “Free Lunch - A bowl of meat” is an update of Free Lunch. It lets Free Lunch enter high school field, and it not only lets students have better nutrition, but also tells them that they can change their own life if they want to. “We are willing to do a lot of things for them at anytime, and help them to grow together.”

Here are some pictures of the event:

Translator: Rao